Nebraska, Indiana Crops Looking Good Despite Dryness

Our Pro Farmer editors check in from the field on Day Two of the Midwest Crop Tour.

As the second day of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour progresses, one issue has made itself apparent on both the Eastern and Western legs: lack of moisture.

"Some of the moisture stress is showing up on dryland corn and dryland soybeans," Pro Farmer editor Chip Flory reports from Nebraska. "But you know what? It’s Nebraska. We’re going to see moisture stress. If you don’t see it, it’s going to be a bin-busting crop."

Flory says the dryland crops he's sampled on the Western leg of the Crop Tour have looked pretty good.

"The dryland corn and dryland beans always tend to hold the yields down over here, and I think that’s going to be the case again," Flory says. "Our dryland samples that we’ve pulled so far this morning are averaging about 130 bu. per acre, and you know, that’s not a bad dryland crop."

Where he's been less impressed is in the irrigated acres. He said normally he would expect irrigated crops to boost the average yield for Nebraska, but he suspects that planting issues have gotten in the way of yield potential.

"So far, I haven't been real impressed with the irrigated corn," he says. But he's more hopeful for the bean crop.

"Nebraska can surprise you," Flory says. "They can build a pretty doggone good bean yield with a low pod count because they’ve got the ability to give it a drink of water whenever it needs it on roughly half of the bean acres."

Indiana Fields Hint at Strong Yields

From the Eastern leg of the Tour, Pro Farmer senior market analyst Brian Grete says the yield estimates on his route have been promising.

"So far we’ve pulled a couple of really strong corn yields, but then we’ve had the rest of them come in average, and a couple even below average," he says. "We have a route average of so far of 179.2 on the corn."

While final numbers for Indiana have yet to be tabulated, Grete says Indiana has some good-looking crops overall. But, moisture stress is creeping in on them as well.

"Generally it’s been pretty good. The last stop we made, we ran into issues with some moisture stress here in far northwest Indiana," he says. "We're starting to see that be a little bit of an issue and starting to rob some of that yield potential that was out there."

Farmers throughout the United States can participate online by entering their own corn measurements into Pro Farmer’s Virtual Crop tool. Available online during Crop Tour week, each participant will get a personalized yield estimate, expanding Midwest Crop Tour participation to corn growers nationwide.